I just purchased the CtC magnet and was hoping on some feedback and critique of my alternate picking. I’ve been serious about playing for about 9 months-ish and cant seem to get past 110 BPM w/ 16th notes. I’m not really sure if I’m using upward or downward pick slanting. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Hey there, welcome to the Forum!
Scales are some of the hardest things to play fast on a guitar, especially when you are just getting started.
Most people first develop their fast picking skills on a single string — and in fact the starting point we often suggest around here is to just try to do a fast tremolo on a single note on a single string.
So… try that and let’s see what it looks like 
EDIT: also, these vids are a good watch!
Hey thanks for the quick response. Here’s what tremolo picking looks like on string.
Thanks again
Cool, the slo-mo makes it a little hard to judge the bigger picture aspects of the motion, but based on results alone I’d guess your limiting factor is that you are “string-hopping”, which is explained in the first video I posted.
I’d recommend to watch that and see if you recognise the issue in your playing. Then, I would watch the second video and try the tapping test that Troy demonstrates without a guitar. That will give you a feel for what fast and efficient motion might feel like.
Hi!
What’s the fastest you can play downstrokes only? It can be a single note or a chord. Whatever feels comfortable.
Hey,
Im only at 85 BPM @16th notes
To me it looks like you’re doing BDX. Double escape.
You could try stimulate your nervous system to go faster by doing some economy.
And in my experiance, it took years before I started to get speed. If you’ve just started it really does take years to get a grip on the guitar.
You say 9 months serious, how long have you been practicing?
Is that your downstrokes-only speed? Well then, how about hitting the string on the way back instead of avoiding it? This way you’ll have 170bpm alternate picking “for free”
If that feels confusing, think of it this way: you are doing your usual repeated downstrokes at 85bpm, but you are not making any effort to avoid the string on the way back. You are NOT paying any attention to the upstrokes. You will just focus on the downstrokes an let the upstrokes happen as a byproduct of the pick coming back to its starting position.
As usual, if you make a video of the attempt the community can help make sure you’re on the right track!
This!
Focusing on strokes on one direction only and letting the reverse one just “happen” on the way back is, in my experience, the most efficient method to find a picking motion you can use at higher speeds, and it usually results in the pick following a more straight trajectory, hence fixing the string challenges of string hopping.
So if I am understanding this correctly, if a person finds a motion that will allow him to tremolo pick quite fast and smooth, he can use that same motion to play other things? Like playing a scale fast?
I’ve often wondered why the emphasis on tremolo picking.
Right, If you can do the simple case fast, and can learn to switch strings, you’ll be in a good place.
Ideally yes. It’s a prelude to doing those types of things.
But can the left hand keep up to the speed of the picking hand? Or do you end up slowing the picking hand down?
Short answer; maybe? Long answer; these are two separate issues, but eventually need to work synergistically. You will have many different perspectives on this. Some feel the holistic approach best, others feel working on them individually is. Typically the people in the individual camp tend to have one of these two parts pretty much sorted out but not always.
Eventually if you have syncing issues once you get going on the picking hand, then you want to back it down a bit and work at the right to left hand accuracy. Right now for the absolute short term, trying to at least get that right hand going on the strings is probably a good path, you can then re-evaluate about what needs to happen next.
To warn, this can be a long process. The trick is seeing at least some result that will power you through all the other mundane boring aspects.